Wild Card
by katherina3
Summary: The Cullens should have known better than to believe that the Volturi would simply lay low and be content hiding in Volterra after their humiliation during the Great Renesmee Confrontation. SethxOC. EdwardxBella and all other usual couples.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **Twilight sadly doesn't belong to me. *bursts into huge, fat, ridiculous tears*

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

_The bright rays of the sun glinted off of a stone statue of a pig sitting on a crumbling dais high up above. Below, huddled against this tower, was a small, battered girl clutching at her clothes. The stone buildings seemed to eerily loom over her. The sun's rays didn't reach where she stood, peeking out from behind the sharp corner of an alley that extended from a square surrounded by clustered buildings. There weren't as many people frequenting the market located in this square as normal, yet there was enough to create a small bustle._

_The little girl stood waiting, fingers tightly curling into her torn and dirty grey rags, biting her bottom lip nervously. She made quite the sight if anyone bothered to look: an undernourished little girl covered in smudges and dirt stains, hunched and trembling ever so slightly, only the whites of her eyes visible from the darkness of the alley, watching people walk by blindly, absorbed in their own lives._

_Out in the busy market, the sunlight was partly blocked by the closely nestled buildings surrounding the square, resulting in many shady areas and less direct sunshine on the general area. It was the perfect place for the vampiress, Heidi, to carry out her job. Wearing a colourful blue and orange designer dress, and emitting an air of magnetic and charismatic allure, she caught the eyes of everyone, whether they be man or woman, as she stood in front of a group of tourists, charming them with her voice while she explained about the architecture and edifices._

_The regulars at the market place reluctantly dragged their gazes back to their work, yet couldn't help but glance back at the extraordinary and eccentric woman who made her way across the square, the group of tourists trotting after her._

_The little girl cocked her head as she caught sight of the colourful woman leading some tourists. Her breath hitched and she shrunk back against the wall, terrified, as that woman's unique, brownish red eyes flicked towards her for the smallest of moments. But it was such a short moment that before she knew it, the woman was passing by her already, the others following soon. Tears pricked her eyes and a few drops leaked from the corner of her eyes._

_Suddenly, the little girl stood frozen in her spot before abruptly inhaling deeply and rushing out of the alleyway with shaking legs and hands, joining the group of people. Her height and drab grey clothes allowed her to blend in with the tourists despite their clean clothes and colourful packs. Her hands, that still continued to be clenched in the folds of her clothes, betrayed her horrific fear but she continued on, bumping into the people around her every now and then, but staying submerged in the middle of the group._

_The group twisted along the setts and sometimes rough pathways that winded around and between the buildings, and the marketplaces. Eventually, they were led to a hidden and olden door. It was antique with exquisite carvings and ancient symbols of another time, and it undermined the beautiful room it held entrance to, as the tourists found out as soon as they crossed the threshold curiously._

_All the while, the little girl huddled among the throng and desperately tried not to run back the way she came. She kept looking back at the door, and in her panic, barely heard the charming woman in the front announce for everyone to stay together. Inevitably, as the person behind her stepped forward, she was jostled along. She looked up at the man behind and found him staring to the front. In fact, everyone, she noticed, seemed to be staring to the front, unnaturally, not even noticing the beautiful artworks on the walls and the ceiling surrounding them._

_They were all led further in, through halls with high ceilings and passageways that had little sconces and tiny, high square windows letting in light. The girl shook more and more, her mouth and shoulders trembling. Finally, Heidi announced that this was the last destination and told them to wait a second before slipping through the huge antique doors in front of her. Some mere quick moments later, the floor-to-ceiling double doors were grandly thrown open to the vast, high-ceilinged room beyond._

_However, just before Heidi's return, there was the briefest heartbeats of disorientation and confusion among the group. The girl watched them distantly as they looked at one another strangely - like they were waking up from some trance - and frowned questioningly at the walls of the hallway around them. But, Heidi returned and everyone's behaviour transformed back to what it was earlier - that of blind followers - and the little girl noticeably flinched._

_The vastness of the room was disrupted by statue like figures, which seemed to be made more of marble than actual stone, and which were strangely dressed in black cloaks and robes. These figures stood in a sort of triangular formation, pointing to the three sitting ablaze on thrones further in. Those three, that sat on thrones, looked translucent in the sunlight shining down from the ceiling and their skin tone was utterly white where the light didn't reach. Their eyes were the most prominent: a blood-red colour. It screamed death and danger to the little girl._

_One member of the group actually started asking if they were real statues as the rest of them spread out and began exploring the cavernous room._

_And that's when they struck. Everything happened quickly after that._

_During that man's simpleminded question, the statues stood, unmoving and immobile one moment. The next, they were gone. Disappeared._

_And the little girl looked at the three papery men still sitting, but with haunting smiles curving their face now, as all around the room terrified screams abruptly started and blood spurted out of someone to her right and another horrific, agonized cry left some poor woman's lips on her left - and the little girl whirled around as she heard something squishy snap behind her, only to be met with the glassy eyes of a man whose limbs were at odd angles - and she looked down, not able to endure the sight anymore - only to see viscous trails of blood slowly trickling towards her from puddles somewhere and the coppery scent filled her nose and overwhelmed her - and she screamed as she felt searing pain and ice-cold fingers around her throat -_

_She met darkness._

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><p><strong>TBC<strong>

A/N: I would love to know your thoughts and comments. Please review!

Thanks,

Katherina


	2. Amazon Rainforest

**Disclaimer:** See profile.

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><p><strong>Chapter One – Amazon Rainforest<strong>

The rainforest was lush and vibrant with the sounds of life among all the rich green and earthy tones. The sound of water trickling was constant amidst the cacophony of animal and bird noises.

Wound lazily on one of the trees was a thick boa, its smooth and colourful scales contrasting strikingly against the rough bark. Further in the darkness of the trees, a jaguar lurked, its shiny ebony coat a beguiling camouflage. The black beauty prowled, jumping elegantly from branch to branch silently, its full weight not deterring it from its light movements. Its golden eyes scanned the forest for prey, its long body arched gracefully to pounce.

Abruptly, the feline froze, attuned to the sudden abnormal silence of the forest. Ears and tail stiff with vigilance, it was alert to the sudden sense of danger lurking in the area. Its tail twitched in agitation and the jaguar flashed its teeth in a growl to intimidate the other hunter.

However, the predator had become the prey.

Too fast for the human eye, a white blur shot out of the foliage and lunged at the jaguar. The jaguar's own movements and reaction was simply moments too slow to fend off the grabbing hands with its own sharp claws and teeth. Pale, ivory hands grasped at the animal's neck and twisted it to keep the cat's yellow fangs from making contact, trapping the animal efficiently.

Gleaming white fangs lowered to the animal's neck and sunk into its thick coat. Eerily, the viscid, dark liquid welling up and oozing from the twin punctures did not mar the hunter's ivory face though.

Sucking the last of the blood out from the massive animal, the vampire released it and soothed the big cat's fur in its last moments of life with the living. The hunter stood up and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply in content as his thirst abated for the moment.

"Edward!" A voice called out.

Edward Cullen opened his eyes, revealing intense amber irises, and gazed upon his brother, Emmett.

"Finished your game?" Emmett asked with a wide grin, his cheeks dimpling, radiating a childlike quality that was at odds with his burly body.

"I'm sure yours was much more entertaining," Edward replied, amused.

Emmett's grin grew bigger, exposing a dangerous fang. "Haven't had this much fun in ages. These Amazonian animals are _wild_."

Edward rolled his eyes in response. "We should head back. I hear the girls readying to visit the market."

"Yeah? All right then. Race you back!" Emmett shot off instantly into the dense trees.

Edward shook his head at his brother's overt display of enthusiasm, but nonetheless, he too dashed off, not one to lose when it came to speed.

About two weeks ago, the Cullens, along with Jacob Black, had left Forks and headed to the rainforest. They were there to aid the Amazon vampires - Kachiri, Senna, and Zafrina - in their efforts to protect the rainforest from any more destruction and devastation.

Over the last few years, the rainforest was being cut down at alarming and horrifying rates for more farm lands. It had become one of the biggest concerns and issues around the world. Only those who dwelled within the forest knew the actual consequences and had raised protests and petitions against the government.

The Cullens were helping with their usual generosity: utilizing their vast financial resources to help along the process for their comrades' side. They were also attempting to willfully pay off their debt to the three Amazons for their aid in the Volturi Confrontation by helping them out this way.

Naturally, other new issues and causes had also risen around the world in the last two decades. An expensive but amazing cure to HIV had been found and released to those of the public who could afford it. It was also finally determined and disclosed as to why cancer actually occurs and the preventive measures for it.

America had fallen from its seat of power with China replacing it. (The Chinese had achieved power by controlling the rest of the world with all that they manufacture and the mass production they do, despite the cheap labour in their country.)

As the trees flashed by him in a messy blur, Edward reminisced how much the world had changed, not just from twenty years ago, but from when he was first turned. Technology, too, had advanced in exponential leaps and bounds, continuing to evolve at a phenomenal rate. Edward thought smugly of all the latest and _fast _models of cars he had acquired in the past decade. Bella's decades old _Vanquish_ paled in comparison to Renesmee's own _DreamChaser_ which she had received on her eighteenth birthday.

Of course, it wasn't just the mortal world that had changed.

It was twenty years ago when the Confrontation - in which the Volturi had returned home humiliated - had happened. Since then, the power the Volturi held over the entire vampire community had become affected and had deteriorated some after the Great Renesmee Confrontation (as was dubbed later by all the vampires supporting the Cullens). The happenings of that confrontation, back then, had spread like wildfire throughout the vampire community by word of mouth. It served as a revelation that influenced all the vampires to inadvertently choose sides and bestowed a certain distinction and reputation upon the Cullen Coven.

Vampire-vegetarianism just didn't seem such a farfetched idea anymore. Those who wanted to wholeheartedly convert their diet approached the Cullens for advice and the Cullens bemusedly aided them. It soon became almost a school that the Cullens ran, in which they taught lessons of "how to diet on animals and ignore the tasty humans."

The sound of running water was a loud roar as Edward and Emmett reached the end of the woods. They stepped out onto the marshy bank and casually leapt over the wide river, strolling up the other side of the bank to a large house located on top of the hill.

The house was of three stories, elevated from the ground some, and made entirely from wood. It blended seamlessly and looked to be a natural part of the surrounding trees and forest. It was built more for functional purpose than any other. However, the Amazons had done a good job of making it unique and beautiful by incorporating cream, beige and tan colours against the dark wood tones in the interior and letting plants and vines grow wild on the walls on the exterior of the structure.

As they entered the house through what was considered the back entrance, Edward caught the last of the thoughts running through Alice's mind before the boat carried the girls away downstream, to the Floating Market.

Edward held back a sigh at Alice's dispirited temperament and her attempts to be indifferent to Bella's chatter on the boat.

Stepping inside, Edward shared a smile with his daughter in greeting and walked over to where she sat, in deep discussion with Zafrina. Jacob sat by her side, sleeping lightly. Emmett had gone out again and seemed to be goading Nahuel into a friendly spar.

Nahuel and Huilen had taken to staying with the Amazons over short, frequent periods of time, as they learned many things from the Amazon coven. Also, over the years, Renesmee and Nahuel had formed a close bond, similar to that of siblings, as Nahuel informally started considering Edward and Carlisle as father figures. After hearing, a couple weeks ago, that the Cullens were visiting the Amazons, they had chosen to stay along too.

Edward ignored the fight now going on outside between Nahuel and Emmett, and gazed down at his daughter's animated exchange with Zafrina.

One of the many changes that occurred over the years primarily revolved around his daughter. As anticipated, Renesmee had grown up rapidly, her aging only slowing down as she reached her tenth year. And by then, she looked to be a young adult. Her appearance easily matching that of her parents, Edward and Bella, one wouldn't be able to distinguish Renesmee as the child in the Cullen family. They would wrongly assume that Bella, Edward, and Renesmee were all three siblings together. It was one of those uncomfortable things in his daughter's life which she tried her best to ignore.

To Edward, it had been striking to see, everyday, the same chocolate brown eyes on Renesmee that Bella had had. And at first, Edward couldn't stop wondering if Bella's eyes would have looked like that had she still been human and aging. But then, he would realize that Renesmee would never have been born and he could only feel grateful to his wife for her unrelenting - and at the time, painful - stubbornness.

But thinking about Bella brought up the recent events and Alice's..._condition_. And though the pictures and feelings Renesmee was conveying to Zafrina through her touch was fascinating, they could not distract him for long from his current line of thought and the conundrums within the family.

A few minutes ago, Bella had forcefully taken an uncharacteristically depressed Alice with her to go shopping. Fifteen years ago, Edward would have been skeptic and would have laughed at it as a joke. But five years after the Volturi Confrontation, Edward thought, with the knowledge of all that has happened in the past two decades, this was an inevitable outcome. Nonetheless, Edward had to let out an amused smile at the situation. He had seen from Alice's and Jasper's minds how _sour_ Bella's mouth had looked when she actually _begged _Alice to go shopping with her. But of course, the end result was worth it and Alice had reluctantly come out of her room with a suspicious twitch of her lips that had instantly belied to Edward her purposeful exaggeration of unwillingness to be social.

But it was only a brief respite of humor for the family.

Edward sighed as his thoughts now centered on Alice. Being a mind-reader, sometimes, he just wanted to drag Bella and his daughter with him to an isolated island somewhere off the face of the earth.

For the past two decades almost, Alice's abilities had been weakening and becoming..._useless_, for lack of a better word. At first, Edward thought back, no one would have noticed - not even Alice herself. During those first five years after the Volturi Confrontation, Alice's talents had been amazingly useful, scoping out any dangers to the Cullen family, any attacks from the Volturi.

The Cullens were able to create detailed sets of plans to avoid, evade and defend in every case of attack they could possibly imagine. Because that confrontation had taught the whole family something. One of them being to always be cautious and have immediate emergency and contingency plans ready.

But after a while, certain visions for Alice would come in very dark tints - almost as if a mist of black was thickening over or enshrouding them. And, some other visions would abruptly end, in mid-action, some motion not being completed or other before all Alice encountered was a black wall. A solid black wall that would not allow her to see farther into that vision or even "sense" around it for any extending connections. Furthermore, her visions were getting shorter, lasting only swift moments before she hit the black wall again.

When Alice first noticed and had the passing thought of her visions getting shorter often - that's when Edward had started paying attention to her mind and her talent and made note of its subtle, troubling nuances.

Gradually, her visions became increasingly shorter, until she hit that black wall instantly when she tried to utilize her talent. After that, her visions came steadily only if they were related to the local area, otherwise, they came less and more random. If she was stubborn and pressed, she merely encountered the frustrating black wall.

Expectedly, Alice had a hard time dealing with it and was easily irritated and angered. She had become depressed as well and was no more the energetic, hyper pixie. That talent had been a major part of her. It was what she had had when she became a vampire - the future, not the past - and it was what had led her to Jasper, and them, the Cullens. And now, for her talent to be disintegrating…

Alice was becoming blind to the future, like the rest of them. It was more than devastating for her.

Edward sighed again as his worries only increased the more he dwelled on the complications behind Alice's talent. He checked on his daughter's and Jacob's minds again before looking out the huge paneled windows, at the rainforest surrounding the house. He still didn't understand what had happened for it to disintegrate. He had never heard of any vampire's ability disappearing, or even weakening, over time. He only saw that they became stronger, as evident by Aro's case.

He was soon lost deep in thought, mulling over Alice's handicap.

...

It was some time later when Edward's head suddenly snapped up and he turned to face the door with furrowed brows. Everyone around him, in the room, looked up at the unusual movement and gazed at him questioningly. Yet, Edward didn't respond.

After a moment, Edward's eyes seemed to widen in realization before he jerked to his feet and stared hard at the door. It was the same expression he had used many times when concentrating on one person's thoughts and one person's only.

"What's wrong, papa?"

Before Renesmee could even finish her question, Alice barged in, throwing the doors off their hinges with her vampiric strength. Bella was hot on Alice's heels and caught the flying objects moments later.

Edward looked into Alice's wide eyes as they both came to the same realization.

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><p><strong>TBC<strong>

A/N: I would very much like to know all you guys' thoughts and comments on this chapter as it pretty much sets the stage. Besides, the more feedback I get, the more motivated I am to write and finish this story.

Thanks,

Katherina


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